9 psychoanalysis continued to assert that and can never be established directly or polymorphous pervcrse adults were either with absolute certainty. However, it is psychotic or unable to form stable human sufficient for critical purposes and is the relationships, and therefore driven from definition used in this article. one sexual episode to the next. With the Value of Pornography. Pornogra- gradual decline of the influence of psycho- phy has often been considered a symptom analysis the term no longer occurs in of societalillness, andits demisepredicted. general writing with any frequency, being That the gradual removal of restrictions replaced by more neutraldesignations, such on sexual activities has not produced a as "sexual pluralism." parallel decline in pornography, but rather Wayne R. Dynes the reverse, suggests that it satisfies a deep need. While animal sexual excitement is POLYNESIA produced by odors, a consequence of the See Pacific Cultures. estrus cycle, human beingsuse their minds. The separation of sexuality from repro- POPPERS duction, the increased lifespan civiliza- See Drugs. 1 tion has brought, and the anti-erotic trends PORNOGRAPHY in modern society mean that glandular impulses toward sexual activity are insuf- Originally referring mainly to ficient. Hence the production and con- writings, today pornography includes a sumption of pornography as a stimulant of whole range of sexually explicit cultural sexual activity. artifacts intended to produce immediate The production of pornography, sexual arousal. The term first appeared in then, is a naturally human activity, stem- eighteenth-century France, a coinage from ming from the same sorts of inner drive Greek pornegraphos, "a painter of prosti- tutes." It is documented in English from that lead to the production of music, art, the mid-nineteenth century. and literature. It has been found among Definition. Considerable thought many tribal peoples. That sexual excite- has been devoted to the definition of por- ment, like laughter, is contagious lies at nography. Proposed definitions are of three the root of pornography's power. types. The first is by content: the portrayal Pornography is, for many people, or discussion of genitalia or specific sexual pleasurable, directly and indirectly pro- acts is pornographic; this definition fails ducing orgasm, and that alone is a power- because sexual acts and gcnitalia may be ful argument for it. It relieves guilt over portrayed for medical purposes, or in edu- sexuality, encourages masturbation and cational material, without the intent to fantasy, and is a substitute forrisky sexual arouse. A second approach is by the encounters; as such, it can be relationship- observer's use of the materials: those enhancing. Through pornography the crea- materials which produce sexual arousal tor and consumer can explore and accept are pornographic. This approach fails bc- aspects of their sexuality which cannot be cause images not intended for arousal, and actcd upon. Although some pornography not found arousing by most, can be used to transmits misinformation, on the whole it produce sexual arousal; conversely, some provides education about sex and contrib- are not stimulated by scenes which the utes to public acceptance of sexuality. majority finds intensely erotic. Finally, Through pornography society does its there is the intent of the producer: those thinking about sex and to some extent materials which are intended to arouse the about relationships. Pornographers and the viewer, reader, or listener are pornographic. legalstruggles they have fought have made As a lcgal critcrion this approach also fails, it possible for non-pornographic sex edu- becausc intent can be disguised or denied, cation materials to circulate freely. Por- * PORNOGRAPHY nography also provides the historian and Little is known in the West about anthropologist with evidence of sexual the homosexual pornographic writings activities and attitudes. (mujun)of the classical Islamic cultures or Homosexual Pornography. It has the pederastic paintingsof Persia. In China been argued that almost all pornography is the Ming period (1368-1644) saw the ap- homosexual. Save for those small portions pearance of sexually explicit literature and consumedby women, orcreatedbywomen prints, including same-sex material. De- for consumption by men, pornography has spite the disapproval of the rulers, these been created by men in order to stimulate interests continued in the succeeding other men. Even if heterosexual activities Manchu dynasty, when China's greatest are described or portrayed, even if the novel, The Dream of the Red Chamber, producer and consumer are heterosexually which has a bisexual hero and many identified, the intent and, in some way, homosexual episodes, appeared. One of the true nature of such pornography is Japan's major writers, Saikaku Ihara, spe- homosexual. That homosexuality and cialized in frank writing about both amo- pornography tend to be accepted or con- rous women and the male-male loves of demned together gives further support to a the Samurai. probable deep relationship, perhaps that Until the nineteenth century, they both encourage and require societal homosexual pornography in the West was tolerance of non-procreative sexuality. often combined with defenses of sodomy. There has also been significant involve- Such works include Alcibiade fanciullo a ment of homosexuals in the production scola, an erotic defense of pederastic love andsale of materials directed to the hetero- from seventeenth-centuryItaly; the bisex- sexual public. ual, philosophical fiction of the Marquis However, pornography is usually de Sade; and The Sins of the Cities of the considered homosexual if it has homoscx- Plain, or the Recollections of a Mary-Anne ualcontent or subject matter. While erotic (1881], the earliest such work that sur- portrayals of men, and descriptions or vives in English and the first that is un- expressions of homosexual love, arewidely abashed masturbatory fiction, with brief found, homosexual pornography is much appended essays on "Sodomy" and "Triba- more restricted. Where it exists it shows dism." Pornographic scenes are found in an acceptance by society, however begrudg- the famous Teleny (1893))a novel falsely ing and limited, of homosexuality and attributed to Oscar Wilde. The number of homosexual sexual relations. The occa- published works, however, was small. Well sional exposure of non-homosexuals to it into the twentieth century pornographic has in turn contributed to further societal stories, such as Seven in a Barn, circulated acceptance of homosexuality. in typewritten form. History. Pornography is excep- The Pulp Novel. The vast major- tionally subject to destruction, homosex- ity of written gay male pornography in the ualpornography doubly so, and the follow- United States is issued in the form of ing discussion is presumably incomplete. paperback novels printed on pulp. Most of The earliest homosexual pornography this material is of no literary value what- occurs in Greek vase paintings, which soever, being typically composed at a rate show much sexually explicit homosexual of over 50 pages a day by writers who often activity (oral, o !all and intercrural inter- have little or no understanding of the set- course). Prims ly pederastic, these depic- tings (interstatetrucking, rodeos, theNavy, tions constitute a body of work unsur- etc.) involved. Typical pay for afull book is passed in artistic value and positive atti- $250. Writers may chum out scores of tude toward sex. books using the same basic ingredients: several pages of sexual description fol- PORNOGRAPHY 4 lowed by several pages of "plot/character" Modem Visual Pornography. The in a pattern repeated throughout the book. invention of photography in the nineteenth Occasionally, however, one finds well- century provided a new medium for the written pornography, often by professional pornographer. The best-known creator of writers "moonlighting" under pseudo- sexually stimulating male portraits was nyms, in which a talent for almost poeti- the Baron von Gloeden, although there cally concise description of characters and were others in bothEngland and Germany. setting is clearly visible, and sometimes Sexual activity was often the subject of an exotic setting is portrayed with such photographs, though legalrestrictions kept telling detail that one must presume the them underground. author is drawing on personal experience Twentieth-century homosexual or thorough research. visual pornography in the United States A wary consumer is well advised and Germany, other than that which was to browse such novels before purchase, as underground, began as an offshoot of the the title and cover illustration may have naturist and physical-culture movements. norelation to thecontents. Until the 1970s, Erotic "physique" magazines, picture sets, novels invariably were introduced by and films were published under the pre- pseudo-scientific statements, supposedly tense of non-sexual interest in body devel- from psychiatrists or clergymen, often opment. More explicit were the drawings denouncing the behavior depicted therein, of "Blade" (Carlyle Kneeland Bate; 1917- and intended to provide the "redeeming 1989).The devastation of German culture social value" then required by the Ameri- by the Nazis and World War I1 left the can courts, but actually providing no little United States as the principal center of gay humor in a genre seldom noted for a comic . Eight and 16mm homosexual films, touch. progressively more straightforward in The sexual scenes in these books subject matter and more open in their are surprisingly varied, given their mass- circulation, were made and screened. A production origins, and reflect the great major figure is Bob Mizer, who founded diversity of exotic styles and tastes among the Athletic Model Guild in Los Angeles their readers and writers. While male or- in 1945. gans are invariably huge, ejaculations The last two generations have copious, and recuperation of potency in- seen a continual attack through the courts stantaneous, and there is a definite bias in on censorship of pornography. Supported favor of youthful characters and settings by an ever more tolerant public, these (teenagers being most popular, perhaps efforts have gradually brought upholdable reflecting ephebophilia), working-class convictions for publication or distribution occupations, and macho rather than re- of pornography to an end in most of the fined or effeminate characters, neverthe- United States (except for child pornogra- less a considerable age range, a rainbow of phy).However, legal harassment and prose- racial types, and a wide palette of sexual cutions have continued, and increased styles is to be found in these novels. toward the end of the Reagan years. The Among writers who have sought freeing of the mails to pornography in the to find a place in the territory between 1970s was an influential step; anotherwas purely ephemeral pornography and litera- the Danish decision, in the late 609, to end ture are Richard Amory (Songof the Loon all legal restrictions on pornography. trilogy), Casimir Dukahz, Gordon Mer- Pornographc Filmmaking. Gay rick, John Preston, John Rechy, Samuel M. porno films typically have much lower Steward ("Phil Andros"), Larry Townsend, budgets than their heterosexual counter- Dirk Vanden, and Marco Vassi. parts, being limited to a smaller market, and pay their actors less: a few hundred 4 PORNOGRAPHY dollars for a couple of days' work is typical. frowned upon, but cruising remained a In the heterosexual business, actresses are major activity. paid much more than actors, but for gay Long before the opening of spe- films their absence helps keep expenses cifically gay cinema houses, theatres show- down. The primaryrequirement for a male ing heterosexual pornographic films had pornography actor is the ability to main- become sites for homosexual cruising, tain an erection while being aware of such being particularly favored by those homo- technical matters as camera angle, sexuals attracted to "straight trade," director's instructions, soundtrack, and so heterosexual males who, upon arousal by forth. This is no mean feat, and a produc- the images of females on the screen, be- tion can be held up for many hours for lack came less choosy about their means of of an erection; sometimes skillful editing relief. Even if the gay cinema should disap- can disguise this failing. pear in favor of home videos, this tradition Filmed pornography has always is likely to endure. been "safe sex" in that, by convention, Recent Developments. Increased ejaculation is always external [in order to gay self-awareness and self-acceptance, be visual]. Producers may, however, resort greater public acceptance of homosexual- to such tricks as using beaten egg-white to ity, and the dropping of most legal barriers simulate semen. to the publication and circulation of por- Early films tended to have rock- nography have all helped homosexual bottom budgets and were intended only pornography to grow explosively. It has for cinematic use; as home videos became today a major role in the gay male world, in more popular, budgets expanded to the which it is not controversial; few legal point where lush background scenery is cases have involved homosexual pornog- common and even special effects are used. raphy. While figures are unavailable, anec- Leading recent gay pornographers dotal evidence suggests that per capita of films and videos include Jean-Daniel consumption is higher in the gay than in Cadinot, Jack Deveau [Hand in Hand the straight community. It has shown a Films), Joe Gage, Sal Grasso ("Steve Scott"], classic sign of economic health, the divi- Fred Halsted (d. 1989), William Higgins, sion into specialties, and theconservatism Christopher Rage, and Peter de Rome. which has come to characterize part of the The Porno Film Theaire. In the pornographic industry is also a sign that it United States, the gay pornographic cin- is well-established. Inexpensive video ema arosc in the late 1960s) originally equipment has made it easier for new featuring "soft-core" films but switching pornographers to enter the field, although over to "hard-core" features in the more to date there has been more straight ama- tolerant 70s. These movie houses soon teur pornography than gay. A number came to be features of the gay subculture of glossy monthly magazines, following in all major cities, serving not only as the model of Playboy and its successors, places of visual entertainment, but often have strong pornographic components in as sites for sexual activity as well. Spaces pictures and text (Blueboy, Honcho, In behind the screen or off to a side were Touch, etc.); Stroke proclaims openly that sometimes in effect reserved as orgyrooms, it is and wants to be pornographic and while other activities took place in the masturbatory. seats of the theatre. Some cinemas added In the 1980s there has been a dance floors, bars, and other facilities so renewcd interest in written and drawn that they came to rival the bathhouses as pornography, in which fantasies are not leisure centers. With the development of limited by what models can actually do the AIDS crisis, overt activity came to be and in which laws, as on intergenerational sex, can be broken without consequence. The new industry offers person- fiction with a strong sexual component. A alized, oral pornography. The division developmcnt of the 1980s is the birth of a between pornography and high art loses its true women's pornographic movement, in rigidity as painters, photographers, and which women create and market erotic authors of fiction and poetry produceworks materials for female consumption, both which stimulate sexually, and pornogra- homosexual and heterosexual. A prece- phers exceed the limits of popular art. dent is the feminist erotica of Anais Nin. The New York editor and pub- There are now published antholo- lisher Boyd McDonald pioneered the col- gies of women's erotica (Herotica, edited lection, for pornographic ends, of confes- by Susie Bright, The Leadng Edge, edited sional, reader-written material, an unde- by Lady Winston, and several other collec- terminable but large proportion of which tions), magazines both lesbian (Bad is not fantasy but reports of authentic Attitude, On Our Backs, Outrageous sexual adventures; his magazine S~aight Women, Yoni) and heterosexual (Eidos, to Hell has been succeeded by First Hand Libido, YellowSilk),amajornovelist, Anne and Friction. Most of McDonald's maga- Rice ("A. N. Roquelaure," "Anne Ram- zine material has been reprinted in book pling"), and filmmakers (FataleVideo; the form by Gay Sunshine Press (nowLeyland heterosexual Candida Royalle). Lace Pub- Publications of San Francisco], and there lications has published several volumes of are original books of the same type from , including the adventure that publisher, from Gay Presses of New fantasies of Artemis OakGrove andCappy York, and from Bright Tyger Press. Jack Kotz' TheFirst Stroke. Pat CalifialsMucho Fritscher, before turning to "documen- Sluts appeared in 1988 (Alyson Publica- tary" erotic videos (Palm Drive Video), tions).In comparisonwithmen's, women's wrotc and edited stories and confessions pornography is less visual, and includes [Man 2 Man magazine). Among the other more emotional context for the sexual pornographic titles published by Leyland acts. While pornography has been contro- Publications is Mike Shearer's Great versial in the feminist movement, and American Gay Porno Novel (1984).David fantasies of violence or domination espe- Hurles ("Old Reliable"] has recorded, first cially so, the emergence of women's erot- on audio and then on video tape, hustlers ica has helped to defuse the issue. Its and ex-convicts, often filled with anger. continucd stronggrowth seemsvery likely. Two leading pornographic visual artists Bisexual Pornography. As many are Tom of Finland and Rex. Pornographic men find lesbian lovemaking stimulating comics have been collected and reprinted to watch, and the division between homo- byLeylandPublications.Inthe1980sagay sexual and heterosexual women has not pornographicindustryemerged outside the been as rigid as the modern dichotomy Unitedstates, first inFrance, thenin Japan between gay and straight men, much por- and on a smaller scale, for export only, in nography has presented women bisexu- Thailand, Brazil, and Mexico. Just as ally. The mid-1980s saw the emergence of American pornography has had consider- pornography portraying men bisexually, able influence in the spreading and ho- usually using sexual trios consisting of mogenization of gay male culture, foreign two men and one woman. Not of "grass- pornography has the potential for broaden- roots" origin, as other forms of pornogra- ing American gay eroticism. phy have been, it has been a successful Women's Pornography. Most al- creation of the indus- legedly lesbian pornography has consisted try, with only trivial written precedents, of fantasies for heterosexual male con- though books have followed in the wake. sumption. As a genre of sexual fantasy Although a product of the homosexual women havehadromances, abundant pulp rather than the heterosexual branch of the 4 PORNOGRAPHY industry, among non-bisexuals it seems to panied by his comrade-in-arms Monty appeal more to heterosexual men than to Woolley, and the two made no secret of the gay-identified. their attraction to handsome young men. In 1936 Porter wrote the score for BIBLIOGRAPHY. Al's Male Video the Hollywood musical Born to Dance, Guide, 1986, New York: Midway Publications, 1986; Varda Burstyn, ed., the first of a number of such films. The Women Against Censorship, Vancouver following year he suffered a riding acci- and Toronto: Douglas & MacIntyre, dent in which both legs were crushed; in 1985; Emrnanuel Cooper, The Sexual the course of his life he required more than Perspective: Homosexuality in Art in the thirty operations to avoid amputation. For Last 100 Years in the West, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986; Gordon long he bore the pain stoically, but in his Hawkins and Franklin E. Zirnring, later years he became reclusive, his days Pornography in a Free Society, New enlivened only-so it has been claimed- York: Cambridge University Press, 1989; by a sadomasochistic relationship with Walter Kendrick, The Secret Museum: actor Jack Cassidy. In 1946 Cary Grant Pornography in Modern Culture, New York: Viking, 1987; John W. Rowbeny, impersonated Porter in a slick Hollywood Gay Vidw: A Guide to Erotica, San film, Night and Day, which, true to form, Francisco: Gay Sunshine, 1986; Betty- entirely omitted the homosexual aspects Carol Sellen and Patricia A. Young, of his life. Feminists, Pornography, and the Law: Porter, who wrote both the lyrics An Annotated Bibliography of Conflict, 1970-1986, Hamden, CT: Library and the music to his songs, chose to oper- Professional Publications, 1987; Alan ate in the field of commercial music. Soble, Pornography. Marxism, Femi- Through his often sly wit he almost single- nism, and the Future of Sexuality, New handedly raised the medium to an art Haven: Yale University Press, 1986; Tom form. Evidently he relished seeing just Waugh, "A Heritage of Pornography," The Body Politic (January19633, pp. how far he could go in a era that exercised 29-33; idem, "Photography, Passion h strict watchfulness on sexual innuendo. Power," The Body Politic (March 1984), He was not always successful, and such pp. 2933; Jack Wrangler and Carl songs as "Love for Sale" and "My Heart Johnes, The lack Wrangler Story, New Belongs to Daddy" were long kept off the York: St. Martin's, 1984. Daniel Eisenberg radio, while others underwent bowdleri- zation. In his 1929 song "I'm a Gigolo," the evidently bisexual character admits that PORTER,COLE he has "just a dash" of lavender. "But in (189 1-1 964) the Morning, No" disturbed the prurient American composer and lyricist. on several occasions, and alterations were Porter was born to wealthy parents in made. Needless to say, these and other Peru, Indiana; Cole was his mother's songs have enjoyed continuing popular- maiden name. After studying music and ity as cult favorites among homosexual law at Hamard and Yale Universities, he audiences. served in the military in France in World BIBLIOGRAPHY. Robert Kimball, ed., War I. There he met Linda Lee Thomas, The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, and they were married in December 1919. New York: Random House, 1983; The couple spent most of the following Charles Schwartz, Cole Porter: A decade conducting a lavish version of the Biography, New York: Da Capo, 1977. "lost generation" lifestyle in Europe, Ward Houser though Porter ocasionally returned to the United States for triumphal productions PORTUGAL of his songs in Broadway musicals. On his This nation of almost ten million various travels he was sometimes accom- people in the southwestern corner of Eu-